Mark xiv. 57. Gen. i. 2, 3, 4.LIGHT. Moses tells us, that God having created the Matter of Heaven and Earth, and Darkness being spread over the Chaos, God said, let there be Light, and there was Light; and God saw the Light that it was good, and he separated the Light from the Darkness. And this made the first Day. Some demand, what this Light of the first Day could be, different from the Sun, which wrs not created till the fourth Day? Certain Rabbins maintain, that it was the Light of the Sun, and that what is said in the seventh Verse of the same Chapter concerning the Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Stars on the fourth Day, is a Recapitulation. Others believe, that God upon the first Day of the World created particularly a luminous Body, much like that which gave Light to the Israelites in the Night Time, when they were in the Wilderness. Something like this must of Necessity be admitted, if we would maintain a successive Creation, and follow the Order pointed out by Moses in the Creation of Things.
To see the Light of Heaven. Lumen cœli non video. I see not the Light of Heaven, said Tobit during his Misfortune, while he was blind. Light is often put for Prosperity, in like Manner as Night for Adversity. The Light shall shine upon thy Ways, God shall favour thy whole Conduct. Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui. Thou hast heaped thy Favours on us.
Jesus Christ foretels his Disciples, that what he said to them in Darkness should be published in the Light, and spread throughout all the World.
The Light of the Living, in a literal Sense signifies an happy Life, Life attended with great Prosperity; but in a moral and spiritual Sense, it signifies the Felicity of eternal Life; in like Manner as the Misery of the wicked is Ps. lvi. 13. cxxix. 12. cxlviii. 3. and Job xxxiii. 30. James i. 17. John viii. 12. John i. 8.described by the Darkness of Death God is styled the Father of Lights, the Author of all Graces; and Jesus Christ is called the Light of the World, a Light to light the Gentiles, the Light of Righteousness, the Light of Life.
The Apostles are the Light of the World, Saint Matth. v. 14. And the Just shall shine in the State of Eternity, as the Stars in the Firmament.